Commentary | California courts owe defendants a jury of their peers. It’s still too hard to get one

Courts have long interpreted the “jury of peers” standard to mean a jury “of equals,” taken randomly from a pool that includes “a broad spectrum of the population, particularly of race, national origin and gender,” according to Law.com’s online legal dictionary. But while about 9 out of 10 defendants nationwide are too poor to afford lawyers, most jurors aren’t in that low of an income bracket.